Ramblings from the 'goblinn

"They that hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck...."

My husband and I were talking about the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who, and he admitted that he has not seen the old (pre Christopher Eccleston) series. I myself saw some of the Tom Baker back in high school as PBS reruns, but not enough to remember storylines, or much of anything really.

So we were both wondering: is there a good rec list out there somewhere of what episodes new fans of the show simply Must See? Or do some of you have recs for us?

In other hobgoblinn news, did I mention I got that full time faculty job at Gateway after all? They called in mid September after one of their people moved to another position and they needed someone to cover her classes and pick up some more. I got a light load taking over in mid term and was able to almost finish my 2 classes at NKU. Still have the final paper in one, but end of term stuff pushed it to the back burner.

I'm just now meeting my new boss, who took off for maternity leave a couple of days after I started, and she seems much nicer now that she's not interviewing me. I'm course manager for an online Comp 101 class and may get to teach a Shakespeare class in the fall.

And-- that was easy. Thanks to friends who have already made the leap, I am not only over here happily ensconced at Dreamwidth, but my whole journal has been imported, too. Only grabbed one icon, although it looks like I get 15 on a free account. But that's okay, it got the only one I actually use, and one I no longer have on any hard drive anywhere I can find (I got it from a medieval manuscript somewhere on the web and have not been able to find it again to recreate it.)

Anyway, I'm looking at how to fix it so that I can read your LJs from there. There are a number of you that I'd like to keep in touch with.

This is mostly a test post so I can see what the crossposting will do. But as infrequently as I've been posting, twice in one day shouldn't cause many complaints.

However, if you have a complaint (or even if you don't) feel free to comment so I can test that feature, too.

I'm just posting this to say that I'm moving my online presence to Dreamwidth. As soon as I figure out how to move my content over there, I will, probably after Nanowrimo is over (and finals.) I have created an account as hobgoblinn over there, same as here, although there is as yet no post in it. Maybe I'll rectify that this weekend.

I think some of you crosspost here from Dreamwidth, so if anyone would like to share advice or experiences, please do.

My main reason for this is I'm getting tired of all the spam comments on my old posts, and the taking away of paid accounts and other actions by the PTB just seem like things I don't want to tolerate when I don't have to.

So, I will still check in from time to time here until my account reverts to a free one next Spring, I think. I will give plenty of advance notice if I decide to completely pull the plug on this account.

In hobgoblinn news, my job continues to be wonderful, and I have taken both the GRE general and subject (English Lit) tests. Other than math being as expected horrible, I think I did quite well on the others, enough that I probably don't have to retake any of them to get into a doc program if I want to fill my summers with that in a year or two.

And Wee Hob is being a Senior. At least his Senior moments involve lack of homework and nothing more serious. And my beloved is still wonderful.

I better get back to my write in. Can any of this count for word count, do you think? I am so far behind!

What a week. I went to new hire orientation Thursday to pick up all my benefits forms and other materials, then went to see my new boss and meet some of my colleagues. All full time faculty have to be course manager for something. Since I have a computer background, they're giving me an online course that is an unholy mess. They know it's a mess, so I'm not expected to fix it overnight, but if I can make any improvements at all they will be quite happy. I get a week to take care of administrative stuff, then 3 shadowing the person I'm taking over for. I start on my own with those classes and a new class of my own in October.

The truly cool thing is, I can take courses at any Kentucky college or University for *free*. The classes I'm in now are already paid for, but after that, they will pick up the tab, up front, no minimum grade requirement or reimbursement needed. If I can get into University of Louisville, I can get my PhD in Rhetoric and Composition (only place in Kentucky that offers the degree.) Or I can take courses at NKU and take Master's certificates in Rhetoric and Composition and Professional Writing, both of which interest me. I can even take 18 hours in another discipline, like Music, and be able to teach classes in that. I might be able to start a chorus or glee club and eventually be able to offer a for credit class in that, or just basic Music Appreciation/ History.

It is so weird how life works out. This kind of situation is exactly what I wanted to do with my life when I left Austin College in 1988. Was a long and winding road, but here I am.

I've been meaning to update for a while. My job at For Profit of which I may Speak No Evil (per our severance agreement) ended in August. I decided to apply to grad schools for 2013, and I have been studying for the GRE general and subject tests. I decided to take a couple of rhetoric/ composition classes at the local University to give me some grounding in the discipline and recent writing samples. I have loved being back in school, though even with homework, I had a lot of time on my hands during the day.

And then I got an email this weekend from the Community College I did not get the job from in May. Seems the dept chair spotted my resume in their adjunct pool and wanted to see if I would be interested in teaching just one class for them, starting Oct 10. I, of course, said yes.

Then today, after a couple of emails back and forth hammering out logistics, the dept chair asked me to give her a call.

Seems they just had a resignation and need to fill a full time position fairly immediately. Since I was so strong a candidate before that they wanted to hire us both, the Provost suggested seeing if I would still be interested in teaching for them full time.

*shock*

It's not a done deal yet, but it looks promising. Ironically, the past month of independent and classroom study have given me so many new ideas for how to be a better teacher. They're actually going to get a way better Comp and Lit teacher now than they would have had they hired me last May. Painful at the time, but it's worked out better for everyone, I think.

And I can't sleep. Feel all achy and meh. Hope I'm not coming down with something.

And-- Sarah Rees Brennan's new book comes out today: Unspoken. If it's as good as her other stuff, it should be well worth a read.

And-- my eldest son is starting at the same community college I may be joining, on Oct. 10th. He's taking basic English, having missed the cutoff on the Compass test by one point. But I am very proud of him, and all the kids in fact are doing very well. I saw the youngest two on their respective 15th and 13th birthdays this past month and a half.

Perhaps if I describe my current situation, it will both explain and excuse my long silence. My school is closing (not a shock) and I find myself unemployed. My Husband's mother passed away just before my last week, and as a result I ended up taking all the personal time I would have lost to be with him and help make arrangements. So I ended up working only 1 day my last week. I went in today and cleaned out my belongings and tied up all loose ends.

If I can navigate the Unemployment Maze, I will not be opposed by the Company, of which I am not allowed to speak any ill, per my severance agreement. And, scariest of all: I'm enrolled in graduate classes at NKU starting Monday.

( Cut for What Was I Thinking?Collapse )Anyway, I'm likely to be here at least once a week. One can only read theory, or check Facebook, or look at pictures of Cats so many hours a day. Will now go off to check the last few weeks/ months of the F-list.

Oh-- And Wee Hob is a Senior! I will have lots more time to redirect him now. He's being pretty tolerant so far of his crazy mom.

Kind of dropped off the face of the earth in mid-April. It was not because my script for script frenzy took off-- that also dropped mid month. No, I found out from a friend that there was a full time English Instructor position at Gateway, the local community college. I applied, got an interview with the selection committee and despite a very painful 20 minute teaching segment, I now have in hand an invitation to interview with the President of the College and Vice Provost next week.

I've never been nervous in interviews-- not debilitatingly so, anyway. But I've never had one that mattered quite this much before, either. And while I am a damn good teacher, I realize I know almost nothing of Academia, having been out of those circles, that conversation, pretty much all my adult life. I've dabbled the past couple of years, but I've been far too busy surviving increasingly grueling teaching schedules at this For Profit nightmare I work for now.

I know many of you on my f-list are academics or have worked in this world-- could you share some questions you've been asked in these types of interviews, or your experience on what I should work on this week to get ready for this?

I was thinking about my LJ friends tonight mostly because I was writing, which is something I do far too little of these days. Did double script pages tonight for Script frenzy, which is to say I'm now up to 10 pages. Then I took a break and read the f-list, checked my yahoo account and saw that ODD was losing its hosting domain. Felt sad that I haven't been to the site in a couple of years, maybe more.

Anyway, fandoms do this, or people change in their reading tastes. We were lucky to have an internet that made possible our entry into fandom even after the glory days of it had passed. I read most of the to me exciting new Buffy stories after the show ceased production and had come out on DVD. Another technology to thank.

I did decide to go with a variant of the Job story for my script, but I decided to focus on a character who knows everything-- what will happen, how all the parts of the universe fit together-- everything but why he's the way he is. Oh, and he likes being around us, so he dwells among us. I haven't worked it all out yet, but I think there's a real difference between the God most people envision-- the one who has a Plan and Makes Things Happen-- and one who just loves and yet gets saddled with a lot of human conceptions of what a God must be like. Like we make God in our own image, ascribe power we maybe think we would like, and none of us is really happier or more enlightened for it. And while we're so busy focusing on power, some of us forget to Love each other and all that, which is really more the point, isn't it?

My character has changed over the ages as he has wandered the earth, and at the moment he seems to be a 16 year old boy who's been accused of murder.

Will have to read the Easter Vigil readings again-- I heard some things that gave me ideas for the story while I was listening and worrying about whether or not I would be able to sing the next Psalm right. But after the very long weekend of singing I was too exhausted to remember anything of use.

I hope you are all well and happy, friends. My eldest turns 20 on the 12th, and Wee Hob will be 17 on the 14th. Where has the time gone?

And I have the music for the opening sequence of my file script: Perpetuum Mobile by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

Friday was the Boy Scout Fish Fry. As a veteran of Troop 8's Epic Turkey Dinner fundraiser, I was actually looking forward to a much shorter time of work. Wasn't prepared for how badly organized this event was with the new troop. Part of the problem is that it's a Church function, with different groups manning each night during Lent and taking the proceeds. So they do it "the way we've always done it." Probably works when the nearest competing Church Fish Fry doesn't take the week off. The overflow crowd was a mess.

Anyway, long afternoon. Saturday was much better, as my Beloved and I went for a hike in the local arboretum. It's been neat to go the past few weeks and see the changes. Can't believe we're getting this kind of weather and plant growth in mid March.

Today was a hike in the hilltop cemetery a few blocks away. It contains one of the batteries that were built to defend Cincinnati in the Civil War, along with several graves from the early 1800s. Lots of flowering trees all over.

And tonight after mass, I was listening to Krista Tippet's "On Being" on my way home. Her guest, Kevin Kilng, made a statement about there being two trips "The one we plan, and the one we take," but I heard it differently. With regard to the end of things, the afterlife (which he was also talking about earlier, hence the connection) it occurred to me that for that trip, the trip you plan, is the trip you take. How you live now affects how that ending goes. Or maybe planning your life to appreciate things now affects the quality of your current life/ trip. It seemed very profound when I was thinking it.

And in a few minutes, Wee Hob should be home from scouts, and we shall see if he earned his next rank. I'll update with that, I guess.

Edit: He made Star Scout. He's been stuck at 1st Class for about 4 years now, so this is cool. Still has only a year to get to Life, then Eagle, so unlikely he will make it before he ages out. Still, many adult leaders encouraged him (or threatened to kick his butt if he didn't try.)

Been a long day. Hung out at the mall a very long time to meet eldest son. He and his girlfriend got lost. They eventually showed up, about 2 hours after they initially said they would, and about 3 after we got there early (because I just do that.)

While wandering about killing time, I got tackle hugged by my youngest. She's now 12. She happily introduced me to her friends as "my real mom." She came back a couple of times for more hugs. She is so tiny and delicate. Reminds me of the little girl I used to see for visits so long ago. She is a beautiful little elf girl, bouncy and full of life.

Her brother informed me when he arrived that she was in fact "pure evil." I'm sure she is a handful, with my sense of mischief and her birth father's stubbornness (ok, mine, too.) She had several friends around, and she bossily sent some of the boys away because she said they weren't being appropriate-- she's a leader of sorts, and popular, and kind of all the things I never was. I am happy for her, though.

My eldest son is also wonderful. Looks just like me, but with a kind of scraggly beard. Wee Hob is a head taller, which floors me. Eldest is not much taller than I am. He mentioned wanting to study psychology and go into therapy practice, as he gravitates now toward giving advice with his friends. He certainly has a background to be great at that, from all his experiences. I hung back more as we wandered after the meal, letting him and his brother and girlfriend interact. It's great to see them able to reconnect after all this time. She also seems a nice girl. Not quite sure what to make of us, of course, but that's to be expected.

I do have to get on writing a "What Happened?" memoir for Eldest, even though as I told him, it's so hard to remember details of what and why. I was actually thinking about this earlier in another context, how much we want to believe memory is like videotape, and how much instead it's filling in blanks and extrapolating just as we have to do to try to narrate the contents of a dream in a way that might make sense.

Still, he's asked for it, and he deserves it. They all do.

That's about all I have for now. I'm trying to come out here and post more. It's writing, and it will fuel more writing, or at least it used to. Hope all is well with all of you.

Oh-- Music note: checked this album out from the library for Wee Hob. I kinda like it.